Utch's Marina - Cape May, NJ - 5/22/12

Breakfast at Delaware City Marina

 After a breakfast of bagels, donuts and coffee at the marina, we decided to take off down the Delaware bay after discussing it with weather guru Tim, the owner of the marina, who told us the Bay would be nice but the weather may not be.

Moor $tuff

Quest led Moor $tuff off the creek and out into the Bay.  This is the first time the boats have traveled together since last August in DC.

Elliott

Looks like the Pink Panther had a rough night and is trying Ricki's coffee.

Tow Boat

 Wasn't sure what this was until we got closer and could see the tow boat actually pulling the barge.

Radiance

 Radiance was docked behind us at the marina.

20 Bucks

 And 20 bucks was behind Radiance at the marina.  We followed them down the Bay for several miles until we passed them.  Several miles later they stepped up their speed considerably and reached Cape May about 4 or 5 miles ahead of us.

Nuclear Power

We were warned by the marina to keep our distance from the nuclear power plant.

Boats following us

Looking aft we had several other boats on the water going our way.  This was a short weather window and rain was expected later in the afternoon.

Ship John Shoal Light

 We passed several lights on the 61 mile trip down the Bay.  The top floors are not faded but covered with bird droppings.

Beautiful Delaware Bay

Tim was spot on with his prediction for the day.  We started with a little current on the nose at 9:30 a.m. but within a couple hours we hit slack water then got a nice push for a few hours in the afternoon.  Our speed ranged from 8.4 mph to 11.5 mph running at 1,675 rpm.

Cape May Canal

 Cape May Canal is a few miles long and not very deep.

Car Ferry

 Several car ferries are docked near the entrance and we have been told that due to the turbulence from them maneuvering, shoaling happens right behind their docks, however dredging equipment was present in the canal.

Cape May Basin

We turned into the basin where our marina is located shortly after 4 p.m. and we went to the fuel dock before entering slip 14.  We had a problem with the shifter on the starboard engine and couldn't get it out of reverse as we entered our slip so will check the cable connections tomorrow.

We plan to spend several days here and hope our PA family members are able to visit while we are here since the next several days of travel will be in the NJ Inter-coastal until we get to the Hudson River.